Energy Policy

ENERGY POLICY -- (Senate - April 27, 2006)

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, as Americans go to the gas pump to fill up their gas tanks with gasoline, they are met with a very harsh economic reality. We have higher gas prices in this country. We don't have enough supply in this country. Of course, we have lots of demand, and demand continues to grow not only in the United States but around the world.

As the Senator from Oklahoma said, we have been trying to take steps now for a decade to address this issue of shortage of supply. As consumers look at the prices they are facing today and the fact that we, for the past decade, have really, for all intents and purposes, done nothing to lessen our dependence on foreign sources of energy or to add to energy resources we have in this country, that reality is starting to take root. I think people are realizing that now for the very first time, and they are taking the steps they can to curb demand. They are carpooling, buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, probably walking more than they used to. I think consumers are doing what they can on their side of the equation to try to address the demand issue.

We have a profound supply issue that has been complicated by a decade of obstruction in the U.S. Congress when it comes to increasing that supply. We have tried for the past decade--I was a Member of the House of Representatives for three terms and now as a Member of the Senate. We have had the opportunity to vote on numerous occasions to explore and produce oil on the North Slope of Alaska. There is somewhere between 6 and 16 billion barrels of oil on the North Slope of Alaska. There would be 1

million barrels a day in the pipeline if, when in 1995 the Congress acted, the President had acted and signed legislation into law that would have allowed us to take advantage of that rich resource right here in America.

We have tried on countless occasions to add to supply. We have offshore production. Why is it that Cuba can produce oil off the coast of Florida but we can't? We have to do something to help ourselves, and for the past decade we have been blocked at every turn by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, by the Democrats in the Senate and in the House, from being able to get into the resources in the State of Alaska and other places.

As the Senator from Oklahoma mentioned, we had a vote in the Environment and Public Works Committee on legislation that would allow us to expand our refinery capacity. It was blocked by a party-line vote. One Republican voted with the Democrats, but the Democrats voted as a party en bloc against expanding refinery capacity.

That is something, too, that we need to get done. I believe there would be a majority of Senators in the Senate who would be in favor of that, just as there is a majority of Senators who are in favor of exploring on the North Slope of Alaska and in favor of offshore production. But the rules of the Senate have been used repeatedly--repeatedly, Mr. President--to block the clear will of the majority when it comes to adding to supply so we can lessen the crisis that we face in this country, putting more supply out there to bring that cost of gasoline, that cost of petroleum down. We have run into constant obstruction in the Senate from our colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle.

So as consumers look at what they are facing today, it is important they begin to apply pressure to their leaders in the Senate and the House to take steps that should have been taken a long time ago and for which there is a clear majority of support in the Senate for exploration in Alaska, for building additional refinery capacity, for offshore production--for all these things that would add to the supply.

Having said that, I also believe it is not too late to do the right thing, and I have introduced bipartisan legislation with Senator Obama from Illinois that would help increase the use of renewable fuels to help meet the energy crisis, that would allow fuel retailers to defray the cost of installing E-85 pumps and other alternative fuel tanks at gas stations. Currently, only about 600 gas stations in the country have E-85 pumps. This would give many more Americans access to this alternative fuel and reduce our dependency on foreign energy.

There is more we can do. The President needs to push our oil-supplying countries to increase production to help ease this supply crisis.

Later today, I will introduce legislation that will provide immediate and short-term relief to American consumers. I will introduce legislation called the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2006 that will provide that relief. It will suspend the gas tax in its entirety for the remainder of this summer, until September 30, the period when Americans need the relief the most over the course of the summer months, when they are doing most of their traveling.

It calls for the elimination of the current 18.4-cents-per-gallon Federal gas tax on gasoline, relief that Americans will feel when they fill their gas tanks. The lost revenues will be reimbursed by temporary suspension of a number of tax credits and royalty waivers received by oil corporations. The increased revenue to the Federal Government from this suspension of tax breaks and incentives will be used to reimburse the Federal Treasury and the highway trust fund dollar for dollar for lost revenue from the suspension of the gasoline tax. The temporary suspension of the tax credits and waivers will remain in place until the resulting revenue stream has fully reimbursed the Treasury.

As we see skyrocketing gas prices around the country, it is time for this Congress to act. It is time for the American consumer to realize some relief. When crude oil is selling for $73 a barrel, it seems to me that many of these incentives and tax credits that are in place for research, development, exploration, and even drilling costs for the oil companies could be used to offset a reduction in the gasoline tax that will bring immediate relief to hard-working consumers who are facing higher and higher costs for the fuel they need to get to work, to do their jobs.

I look forward to engaging in the debate about what we can do here and now, but I have to say that in the long term, steps should have been taken a decade ago to add to supplies in this country. It is never too late to do the right thing. We need to be moving forward to make sure America is energy independent, that America's future is energy secure. So we have to rely less and less on foreign countries around the world from which we derive today about 60 percent of our energy supply. That is an untenable situation to be in. It is something that should have been addressed. We tried to address it for years. There is majority support for many of these proposals that would increase supply in this country today, but we continue to run into obstruction in the Senate. I hope that will end so we can address this incredibly important crisis and issue to the American people.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

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